This is a different game. You will be thrown into a story you won't unterstand to be attacked. Every action will have an effect. This game won't shine through gameplay or mechanics. Not even the graphic can be described as good. But they all work perfectly together. This game will get you as a gamer to play as the main char. You will feel with him and guide him around the dark town with no hospitallity for a stranger. This game is rather a study about you and humanity than a game. If you like rpgs and have the time and patience to become one with the game you will love it.

I'm pretty sure that almost everybody who has played pathologic for at least a few hours feels the need to talk about it. Even this fact alone should tell you what kind of a game it is. It is by no means, fun. You can't sit in front of your PC after a hard day at work and play pathologic for a few hours. No, that would be too easy. Instead, this game first sucks you in, then suck your energy. As you may know from the summary, it's about an epidemic destroying a town. What you'll find out once you begin the game is, all the shortcomings of the game (and there are lots of them combat mechanics, walking speed, translation etc.) will really make you suffer when playing. But on the other side, you'll be already in the game and you'll want to see what happens. So you suffer through. Just like your character would in that scenario. It is THE most immersive game I've ever played. As the developer puts it, it's a behavioral simulator. If you do buy and play it, you'll curse and thank me at the same time. I'm sure of that.

An absolutely unique game. I can't sum it up adequately in a small review, so I'll just say that it's ugly, its frustrating, and it is an absolutely amazing experience. Easily one of the best games in the 1c collection.

Wow... i thought this would be a lot like Myst or maybe a traditional puzzle game. it's SO MUCH MORE than that! the graphics may not be that great and the controls during combat are... murkey at best. thankfully that doesn't happen to often, allowing you to immerse in the world. the key thing this game has going for it are the characters, the setting, the atmosphere, the style. this game won me over in the first 20 minutes which is something that's only happened with team fortress 2 and metro 2033. its confusing but intrigueing, its a story driven thinkers game. if you're looking for a game where its story is the meat and potatoes, i don't think you could do any better.

This is an open world FPS-style adventure playing out in a small town where things are becoming increasingly strange, and scary. Being open world means you can go around freely, look around, fiddle with stuff etc. This is also where this style adventure often run into trouble.

The freedom means it is harder to control the flow of events, script them and chain into a story, and this means that the game must employ what you might call "trickery" - locking down doors, hiding object, making NPCs extremely uncooperative etc. All robbing you of much of that nice flexibility.

Being FPS is also seems nice, you are there, in the middle of things, as if you saw it through your own eyes. This, however, is superficial, because typical FPS style games suffer from a severely limited "vocabulary" - actions you can perform generally in the world.

You can of course abstract actions to a "Use"-function that does on thing in one location, another in the next etc. At which point, you may as well just have those ubiquitous huge red buttons FPS games are so known for.

All in all, while the idea behind this game is quite nice, the execution is not.

This game is confounding. It's hard, it's confusing, it's strange. But I feel drawn to it, I feel like I must explore its' mysteries. Which is a pretty rare feeling in gaming these days. It does have its' share of downsides. The translation can be a bit too obtuse, and the controls can feel clunky and slow. Walking everywhere drove me mad given its' pace, and discouraged me from playing through as one of the other characters for a while. But still, give this a look if you want some pure undistilled weirdness.

The game is very interesting, strange even. I found it enjoyable. The controls are a little questionable, the game is ridiculously hard, but the story and idea are really interesting. Worth it if you can get it on sale.

An interesting game, probably worth checking out when it's on sale. I got to the fourth day, ran out of food and died at a dead end. I doubt I'll ever restart and try to play it again, but it's certainly interesting and pretty atmospheric and intense at times. A major problem, however, is the translation. A significant part of the game is talking to people, and in many cases the dialogue approaches nonsensical gibberish. My understanding is that this is not intentional but a result of incompetent translation.

Pathologic has been described as a misery sim, and that's about as accurate a description as you can get. It's sort of an RPG-adventure game that takes place in a town gripped by a horrible plague. Basically everyone in the town is suspicious of you and suffering for their own reasons, so it's a horrifying place.

Further, the game itself is very difficult and frequently arbitrary, which fits with the setting, but is very frustrating to the player.

Pathologic isn't a good game, but it's a very, very interesting one.

Pathologic is a strange game. It starts in mystery, and you only understand more as you play.

Gameplay is traditional: First person, WASD move, left click punch... however, they're not meant to be traditional. Your whole goal is to find what's happening in this city, and as I understand you only have so much time. The action is non-linear, and fighting is not a big part.

Therefore, don't expect a shooter. Pathologic is about the story and the narrative.

I like this game, really isn't anything out there like this game. You play as two characters, one at a time. At first you don't know what is going on and don't know that your competeing with each other.

Please do youself a favour and buy this game. Look past the outdated Graphics and occassional bugs to a true masterpiece of story telling and an experience that will not be forgotten!

It's a strange peculiar game, the graphics are very dated but they do the job, and it is also extremely bad translated, but even with this it's interesting to play, it' s a strange experience, I think you'll love or hate it.

It's a strange mix of adventure, survival horror and RPG, and efen if it has clunky controls and often you could die without knowing way, i think you should try it if you find it during a sale.

Pathologic take the player inside a very anguish world, forcing him to stand as an actor inside of this sick theatre of events. While this title has some flaws, it can give some unique feelings. I would recommend this title to anyone who's looking for something like a psychological horror or an interesting experience.

Pathologic is less of a game and more of a test of a person's mettle. Experiencing the bleak world presented by Ice-Pick Lodge's first game, this game overcomes its bad translation and lacking interface to deliver a tale that makes the player question everything presented to them.

While the game is lacking in smooth game play, it more than makes up for it in the life that is placed in each aspect of the moody town in Tsarist Russia where the game takes place. Do not head into this game looking for an optimistic world - be aware that everyone is meat and sometimes that meat spoils.

Initially i thought (and hoped) that this game would be great. It certainly has some elements there to make an exceptional game. But i felt that there were too many annoyances. The whole game is timed, and it can be difficult to know what you're supposed to do.

The frame rate is jerky/slow. The graphics are ok, a bit dated. I liked the general atmosphere of the game, and the music ambience really adds to the game. The story is also very interesting, it's a shame the games idea is let down by poor execution.

A bizarre journey into russian magical realism in all its unrestrained weirdness. On the surface, the game's a simple mix of elements of survival horror and RPG, consisting of nothing more than fetch quests and wandering about. Underneath, it manages to be something a lot more interesting, though crippled by the usual jankiness (in all aspects of gameplay, presentation and localization) of these types of games. If you're up for something weird, it's well worth your time, and be sure to check Ice-Pick Lodge's follow-up to Pathologic, The Void. It's much more polished and enjoyable, while at the same time keeping the abrasive and depressing atmosphere that makes IPL's games so unique.

It has been quite a while since I've played a game that really requires your attention. It took me some time to begin to understand what was happening and what was required of me as a gamer but I never felt underinformed or confused, perplexed but not lost. I feel that there used to be more games that involved the player in this way. Refreshing, creepy and somehow alien and beautiful. Not a perfect game by a long shot but an interesting one.

A brilliant and quirky game, you'll either love it or hate it: a mix of adventure, survival game, RPG, horror and a study of the human soul and the desperation one feels when faced with a seemingly impossible to defeat foe. Graphically the game may be behind the times, but the art style is timeless and unsettling. Brutally hard and maybe not even very rewarding(even if you 'win', do you really?) but gripping to the very end. It's not much fun to play, but if you 'get it' you won't be able to put it down. A game that isn't a game at all...

Amazing.

The game starts out very odd and strange. This alludes to a very mysterious and interesting story able to grip the player to press on to peel away the layers. The graphics are very dated but they do the basic job. All of the other pieces, such as the controls, journal, map, inventory, menus, dialogue screens, mesh pretty well. The game world has a grim, bizarre, strangeness which you can find allusion to just by hovering over one of the odd items you might pick up and read the description. I was playing as the doctor character initially and apparently he likes to pick up organs of the people he beats to a pulp. I suppose he uses his bares hands to rip out the guts since I had to waste a large amount of time in the cumbersome, slow, awkward (broken?) combat system.

The collection detection for the combat is atrocious, you are "punching the air" in front of the target to him. You have to time your step forward to begin your slow swing, and step away at the right moment to avoid getting struck. Forget blocking, it doesn't do any good whatsoever.

You will turn this game off after the first 5 minutes. After being randomly attacked and killed after taking one or two shots from an enemy, you will have to reload. For an old game, the reload times are atrociously long. Just what the hell is it loading?

In any case, you have to save every 10 seconds you aren't being mauled.

You do not obtain any weapons as far as I can tell. You just run around with your fists. Pretty frackin' stupid if you ask me. At some point you maybe or maybe not might get a weapon who knows.

But who cares? You will be asking this after you die the tenth time within the first 5-10 min. of the game of running around a non-interactive city (just blocky buildings that all look like cargo containers).

Some tout this game as some sort of masterpiece in story-telling.

It appears to have those elements but only if you are A MASOCHIST and love games that constantly kill you forcing you to reload a million times.

Where is the fun in that? I really tried to give this game a fair run. I went through walkthrus, and read up about it. Also, for those with the Gamersgate version there are technical issues with install for some. The game is missing .dll files and it appears because the game doesn't install the files into the correct folder. For example, my save games are not in the saves folder. I don't know where the hell they are. I also cannot launch the game .exe from the actual game folder. Instead, I have to launch it from the icon placed on desktop from the install process. If I try to launch from the actual supposed .exe itself, it produces errors about missing files not where they are suppose to me. Also, you cannot edit the .cfg files, it seems the game is using .cfg files that are hidden somewhere on your computer and not in the actual game folder. I learned something about this when I tried to use the CHEATS as a last resort to see if I can advance and actually enjoy the game. The Cheats don't work due to this issue. From the developer's forum, it seems only those with the Gamersgate version seem to have these issues.

Ultimately, the game is major TURD covered in frosting. You get past the sweet frosting and find a pile of crap inside.

I surmise the developers weren't interest in making money from their efforts with this game.

If they were, they would have playtested it or listened to the mainstream gamers who cry out: "THIS SUCKS, here's why!"

Instead, they listen to the tiny handful of die-hard oddball gamers. You know, the ones who are fanatic about a piece of crap game and forum a cult around it. This game is pathologically stupid and so are they.

Unique and atmospheric. Won't cater to a wider audience with dated graphic, clunky controls and survival mechanics but this psychological thriller is a great experince waiting to be had. Frustaring and thought provoking at times, downright weird at times; this is one game unlike any other on the market.

This "game" is more of a struggle simulator and best suited for people who are into extreme survival situations (FPS style). The graphics are quite dated at this age and the game is extremely shoddily translated. Example: what is a "devotess"? I'd avoid this game if you're looking for something to have some random fun with. The game demands a lot out of the player and the bad translation will have you scratching your head. Oh and there is one more bonus: the game is on a fairly strict time limit, so I hope you know what you're doing or you might get dragged into dust.

I have read a great many positive things about this game - about it's character, it's ambiance, it's lofty ambitions that it (supposedly) achieves, if only partially. I've also read a great many things knocking it, among them the bad translation (and it is HORRID), dated graphics (they are most definitely dated, but a good game can certainly overcome that), and so on. The pacing is quite slow to start and the butchering of the translation I find quite trying, being a rather large stumbling block that hinders my progress or ability to involve myself fully in the game (maybe it's just the overly analytic English major in me, who knows). I have tried to play the game, I have tried to overlook it's flaws and I have tried to give it the benefit of the doubt. Yet in the end, I cannot get into this game. I am glad I only paid 3 bucks for it. I read it was tough to recommend at 25 pounds, and this...this is a tiny fraction of that and I would have a near impossible time suggesting this title to anyone. All I can say is this. It is cheap. If you are curious, pick it up now while it's only three bucks. If the price goes back up to around the MSRP of $9.99, I would have to say pass. I attempted to steel myself against it's faults going in and really appreciate what it was trying to do and what it did right (and it is by all accounts a very interesting premise that has some good ideas), but I ultimately couldn't do it. When you can get triple A games from a couple years ago for nearly the same price, it really is no comparison. This requires a lot of leniency going in, leniency I was prepared to give it, but I was clearly not quite prepared enough for the awkward and sometimes impossible to follow dialogue that the game relies so heavily on. If I only knew more about the process behind it, I would try and do a fan translation to make it more playable (or at least palatable), but alas I do not. Again, if the borderline reviews intrigued you, pick it up now. It costs less than a middle of the road beer at a bar. No big loss if you ditch it after an hour. But like I said, you have to be prepared for it's warts, and the warts aren't just superficial flaws - they go deep. In a game with as much narrative as this one, this issue is nearly gamebreaking on it's own. So there is my two cents. It is in impulse buy territory, so get it while the impulse is there, else possibly regret paying more for this ugly baby down the road.

Slow and atmospheric don't even begin to describe the world that Pathologic inhabits.

A game where fun is not [always] the point, and the world will live or die without you is truly something different from any other game I've played. Ice-pick Lodge forever earned my respect with this game (even with the terrible English translation). A first person action adventure mystery whose plot I can't begin to describe and is filled with despair that is all-consuming, tangible even.

Yes some of the game is broken (that English!), and the engine is dated (though it looks rather good compared to the competition of it's time, 2005), but you will never play another game like this.

This game seems quite unique in his genre, the atmosphere is quite good, but the graphics are severely outdated and the commands are really not up to the task.

I do like interesting games that contain the feeling of loneliness and a setting where you're not welcome. This game was published 6 years ago, and even now, there are not many decent FPS-Adventure games so it is still unique.

What I liked was, well, pretty much everything about the deep story and curious gameplay.

The game has a timeline and you have to achieve certain tasks in limited time, say, until the evening. That makes the game even harder, because many times, you will have no clue of what to do next. I wasn't able to finish the game, in fact I wasn't able to proceed well enough to tell much about the game (back in 2006) but now I am planning to play this one again, trying to do my best.

Cryostasis is a unique mix of different game play mechanics that you won't find in any other survival horror. Unique weapons from a world war time period to new inventions and the story makes you think unlike other games were the story is fed to you with a silver spoon. You will fight an array of different ice zombies and boss fights, each with different tactics to defeat them, requiring you to think on your toes. Using heat as a source of health and energy is also unique, keeping you stressed about staying warm in a arctic environment. The graphics are actually quiet remarkable for a 2009 game, but at the same time they require good hardware for top settings. Only reason i am not giving this game an 10 is because the games bugs are evident and the lack of re-playability let this game down. Besides that.. A great game from a unexpected source.

Engaging, thrilling, and atmospheric. Pathologic is a wonderful experience in futility and despair. I wouldn't necessarily call the game fun, especially with its increasing difficulty purposely added to mimic the harsh reality of the game's situation; however, it is definitely one of the few games of its kind. If you enjoy survival horror games, this needs to be on the top of your list.

I really liked this game. So much attention to detail and so many little things going on. You play as one of three people (the third is unlocked later) and experience the tragedy unfolding through the eyes of a different person with a different outlook. This game is as surreal as it is cerebral and the level of detail put into this one makes it that much better.

Do you like crazy, janky Russian games with poor translations? Do you want to play a game where the crap-sack world will make the living envy the dead? Ever want to trade your gun for a can of vegetables so you won't starve to death? If so, you should play Pathologic. I'm not gonna lie. The mechanics can be pretty awful, but you may like the twisted atmosphere as much as I did. Now if only someone could explain to me exactly what's going on in this game.

Although I haven't finished it yet, there's no denying that Pathologic is a very surreal experience that will cater to only the finest of gaming tastes.

The story starts out with you watching a play and then choosing 1 of 3 characters (third being locked untill playthrough) and involves your quest to help a town where a plague is running rampant. The beauty of this story isn't in the actual story line, but in the small nuances as to how it is told. You'll find that all important characters have real life foto's and 4th walls are often broken.

The graphics and controllers are pretty badly done, as is the writing and the voicework, but that only speaks for it's charm.

If you're looking for a game that's completly unlike anything you've ever seen, look no further!

A trippy game. I only recommend this game if you're really willing to invest the time into it and are looking for more of an artistic experience than a game-y experience.

A really strange but at the same time fascinating game. Might be a bit too confusing for some players who are not used to "total" freedom. You often have to figure out for yourself where to go and when.

Pathologic is one of the strangest games since long. It´s starts with just defying to be categorized. It´s draws from (melee) combat FPS and survival, because you can also die from hunger or decease. So monitor your needs closely, if you want to survive. It draws from RPG, because it has lots of NPC to interact with and it takes place in realtime, meaning the game world around you advances and eventually ends with or without you taking any action. 
Actually this may be more like a brutal survival game, where you trade ANYTHING for food happily, than any other genre. It´s also the most frustrating part in Pathologic.
 And there are even some more twists to the setting.

Like, the further you progress, the further the plague you are trying to fight progresses. Closing off more and more of the town, which is put under quarantine. The world is literally closing in on you. This adds to the much uncomfortable tension the game already sets when you begin the game. 


You can choose from 3 different characters and they all see their own, very different side of the story. Also in the meantime, the two other characters, that you are not controlling just now, work against you. This gives the game an incredible depth of story telling and narrative freedom. This freedom includes that most NPC craft their own intrigues, to make you do things.

So, to fully understand the city, the origin of the plague and it´s cure and the symbolism of it all, you need to play this game three times, while parts of the truth are carefully kept from you.


This game has also lots of sickening moments: the streets filled with deceased bodies and dying people, the murderous children, the merciless soldiers, the rumors and eventually your own actions. And when you reach the game´s climax, the understanding how it all fits together, you feel like vomiting for relief, after all the hours of unnerving and mind-grinding gameplay. 


Did I say „game“?, Surely this is no game. Developer Ice-pick Lodge called Pathologic “an exercise in decision making”. This game hurts and offends like a Lars von Trier movie or a Damien Hirst formaldehyde sculpture. The bitter, disillusioning, bleak side of Art. And Art it is.

There is nothing even remotely comparable to „Pathologic“ on the software market.

In my quest to find something new and different, and fueled by the excellent three part analysis of this game done by the Rock Paper Shotgun website, I purchased Pathologic. The reviews already posted here pretty much nailed it; it's a weird, surreal game. There's a very forboding atmosphere, and that adds to the experience of trying to save as many townspeople as you can. The graphics are pretty much average, and if you have a multi-core CPU, you may have to alt-tab to the desktop to set the game's affinity to one core so that the game can run properly. The Russian-to-English translation is passable at best, but still playable (as long as you don't play as the female Devotress character...however, a planned English translation patch by an Ice Pick Lodge programmer may fix this). This game is definitely not for everyone, but if you're interested, please Google for the Rock Paper Shotgun articles on this game to read what it's about; Ice Pick Lodge set out to make something different, and in that they succeeded.

This is at once an immensely interesting and immensely frustrating game. The premise essentially that you spend twelve days in a town quarrantined for a virus outbreak as one of three characters. The interesting part is that their stories interweave and effect the main story throughout; i.e. you take actions as one character and then see the repercussions as another (it's hard to explain this without spoiling the surprises!)

The graphics are somewhat stark, but this only adds to the atmosphere of the game. The English translation is riddled with problems, but rather than detracting from the game this only adds to the otherworldly atmosphere and at times is quite poetic.

Survival plays a big role in the game, with keeping yourself fed, healthy and able to fight being highly important. Combat can be horribly frustrating, mainly due to the engine rather than any gameplay consideration.

Anyone whose tastes reach for the more bizarre or who enjoys a good psychological thriller will probably find this highly enjoyable. This isn't just a unique game, it's an experience.

First off: This game is Strange, with a capital "S". The plot is that you have been sent to cure a village of a mysterious plague. Reasonable. You play it like a first person shooter/adventure game (think Deus Ex). Again, not too weird. The half human half raven narrator's that no one else can see? Quite odd. To say much more would spoil too much, and as this game relies heavily on it's slowly unveiled plot it would be rude to ruin it.

If any of that interests you you would not go far wrong purchasing this game. However be warned that the translation from Russian (it's a Russian game) is terrible. At first you may think people are being cryptic, but no, they just can;t speak English very well. There is a translation project running from the developer's forum, but it is far from finished. This is of course quite irritating and somewhat of a barrier to your enjoyment, but you can muddle your way through and still find allot to like in the odd little production.

The game has very poor support for built-in audio-cards so, if you find yourself having sound issues, the best way to deal with them is disabling sound altogether. There is no other know way to address the problem, unless you plan on buying an external sound card. Note that on-board audio might still cause inconsistencies, even if you have an external sound card in the computer. You should disable the chip from bios.

Therefore I had to try and play the game with no sound. It made the game boring and flat and I quickly abandoned the pursuit. Shame it looked like it could be good.